They Got Acquired - 750 paid users

November 19, 2024
​Read on web​

A few readers have commented that we've covered a lot of SaaS deals lately.

That's true! But it doesn't reflect a change in our coverage; we've simply had a lot of software founders share their story with us.

We also offer ideas around selling these types of companies...

• ​Agencies & services​
• ​Media & content​
• ​E-commerce​
• ​Communities​
• ​Marketplaces​

And we cover all of these in our M&A platform, too!

Now onto today's story...

The first time Peter Valley attempted to find books to resell, he got locked in a dumpster. 🫢

The high school senior took an interest in dumpster diving and came across a semi-truck-sized dumpster full of thousands of books outside a thrift store. While he was inside the dumpster filling boxes of books, an employee threw a padlock on the dumpster and called the police.

Valley received a stern talk and was let go. But that moment planted a seed. Valley could take books he found for free or cheap and sell them for a profit. The process actually has a name: book arbitrage.

In 2015, he turned this passion and money-making gig into a software, Zen Arbitrage, which scans Amazon for books listed under their typical selling price.

In 2022, when he sold his business, Zen Arbitrage had 750 paid users and raked in $90,000 in monthly revenue.

Our story has all the details:

​He turned his book arbitrage side gig into a software making $90,000/month​

Sponsored by

Overcome the No. 1 barrier to exit planning: owner dependency

Former CEO and nationally recognized Business Transition Strategist, Laurie Barkman, has guided hundreds of entrepreneurs to strengthen the connection between transition planning and exit success.

She’s created The Endgame Entrepreneurship™ Masterclass to empower business owners with a holistic, structured process to:

• Implement proven exit planning and M&A frameworks
• Optimize the business prior to selling and see your business through a buyer’s lens
• Increase wealth by 400%-500% by focusing on value creation

Now available for limited-time price, Freedom Finder (Masterclass Course 1) will help you overcome the #1 barrier to exit planning: owner dependency.

Find clarity on how to create a more scalable, valuable, and sellable business, ensuring a regret-free transition.

Join the Endgame Entrepreneurship community today and start building a business that can thrive without you.

Selling an AI-focused business

AI might be the hottest thing in startups right now. But founders have been successfully scaling and selling artificial intelligence-driven businesses with far less hype for years.

Michael Rumiantsau, who built FriendlyData with two co-founders, is a prime example.

They launched the business in 2016 to enable businesses to use plain English to query their databases.

Two years later, they joined an incubator and raised $1.2 million.

They’d intended to use that raise to grow the business. Instead, it led to a sale to publicly traded AI-focused B2B software giant ServiceNow.

Read more about this 8-figure deal:

​How a raise and a relationship led to the 8-figure sale of this software business​

We'll be off next week for Thanksgiving. See you in December!

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​